A persistent conclusion among public opinion scholars is that the average citizen is basically indifferent to the substance of policy, and instead responds to policies on the basis of their symbolic content, particularly associations with salient social and political groups (Achen and Bartels 2016). [...] Partisanship, Information, and Policy Attitudes When it comes to the influence of social identity on policy attitudes, the impact of partisanship, or “party identification”, is without peer. [...] There are conditions, however, under which information about the substance of public policy – about the characteristics of policy problems, policies’ concrete features and anticipated effects, and connections to valued principles – makes a difference to policy attitudes. [...] As regards the role of regional identities, research on how partisan identities and policy substance affect policy attitudes suggests that a key variable will be the extent to which the provinces prominently disagree among themselves, and with the federal government, on the proper approach in this area. [...] On the other hand, if the politics develop into an Ottawa-vs.-the-Rest, East-vs.-West, or other dichotomy, it is likely that the design of the policy solution will matter less to public opinion than to the region in which that “public” is located.
- Pages
- 5
- Published in
- Canada
